Apple iTunes offers Boxing Day album sales

The Canadian iTunes Store is holding a music sale for some albums on the platform. The sale is expected to last until Boxing Day on Monday, December 26. Just like the previous year, a few select categories are on sale, including Hot in 2016, Discovery Artists, Essential Albums, and Musique francophone. The albums on here are priced at $5.99 instead of the usual $9.99 price.

Source: 9to5Mac

iTunes may soon read the news to you

A new feature coming to iTunes got leaked earlier (and has since been pulled) that will allow the service to read the news to you. Called Spoken Editions, this podcasts-branded feature has short programs reading written news items from select publications such as Wired, TechCrunch, Forbes, and Time. According to the descriptions of the audio files, this feature is powered by SpokenLayer, which is a service that creates and distributes audio versions of the written word. This feature when it officially launches will come in handy when you want to listen to the latest news from these publications while you’re off doing something else.

According to TechCrunch’s interview with SpokenLayer’s CEO Will Mayo, the company specializes in making each publication sound distinct—so Wired will sound like Wired. Also, SpokenLayer and the publications split whatever is made from the audio ads attached to the podcasts. There isn’t that long a wait for this new feature to come early next month.

Rumours claim Beyoncé’s new album to drop digitally tonight

Following its world premiere on iTunes and availability on Jay Z’s Tidal music streaming service, rumours say Beyoncé’s new album, “Lemonade,” will be landing on the likes of iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play by Sunday night at midnight. At the moment, fans can purchase the visual album outright on Tidal for US$17.99 (about $22) without having to subscribe to the streaming service. It includes 12 songs and videos as well as the one-hour special shown on HBO. It should also cost roughly the same amount on other services.

However, if you’re waiting for the streaming version to show up on other services, you might be waiting in vain for that. According to an official representative from Tidal, “Lemonade” will be a streaming exclusive on Tidal “in perpetuity;” joining some of the albums that are tied exclusively to the service.

Source: MacRumors

Apple puts an end to iTunes allowance

If you've been relying on giving your kids allowances to buy apps on iTunes, that's going to be put to an end by May 25th. Those who are trying to sign up for iTunes allowance now are being prevented by Apple. This feature automatically replenishes a kid's balance every month with a set amount ranging from $10 USD to $50 USD, which keeps kids from accessing your credit cards. Existing allowance money can still be used though.

What Apple is encouraging its users to do is use Family Sharing, which gives up to six family members access to each other's purchases. They also have an Ask to Buy feature, where the children can send a request to their parents when they want to purchase an app. 

Source: Engadget